Clegg: Lords irrelevant to public

Moves by peers to vote down aspects of the
Government's welfare reform show they
 are out of touch with voters, Nick Clegg said

The House of Lords showed it was out of touch with voters' concerns by trying to water down Government efforts to slash billions from welfare payments, Nick Clegg said.

A series of defeats inflicted on benefit reforms by peers, including leading bishops, were reversed by MPs on Wednesday despite protests from disability and poverty campaigners.

The upper chamber had sought to exclude child benefit from a £26,000-a-year household cap, exempt cancer patients from means testing and stop parents being charged to use the Child Support Agency.

Senior Tories have accused ministers of treating the Lords with "contempt" by using parliamentary convention to prevent the upper chamber proposing further changes in key areas.

Interviewed by parliament's The House magazine in the wake of the defeats, Mr Clegg, who is leading efforts to reform the Lords, suggested it was irrelevant to the public.

"When people are trying to pay the bills, and are worried about their jobs, and are worried their kids going to college and all the rest of it, I don't think the vast majority of people think about the House of Lords at all," he said.

"I don't think it impinges on their daily life at all. When it does, like it did this week, how can I put this politely? I suspect many people will think: 'I am not sure this is a chamber in real touch with my everyday concerns'."

He defended the opposition of some of his own party's peers to aspects of the Welfare Reform Billhowever, saying they had "totally legitimate concerns" over some issues.

They were often being asked to vote in some cases on things they "wouldn't do in a month of Sundays if it was a Liberal Democrat government", he pointed out.

Mr Clegg also expressed his fears that the international stand-off with Iran over its nuclear ambitions could end in conflict or provoke countries such as Israel to launch a military strike. "Of course I worry that there will be a military conflict and that certain countries might seek to take matters into their own hands," he said.

Bid to reverse welfare defeats

The Government will move to overturn seven defeats on its welfare reforms including a bishops' amendment to change a planned £26,000 cap on benefits.

The controversial Welfare Bill is being returned to MPs after peers went through the Government's plan line by line.

The most prominent showdowns came over the Government's £26,000-a-year benefits cap and plans to charge parents to access the Child Support Agency. A bishops' amendment, backed byLabour peers, seeks to take child benefit out of the cap.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "We have been very clear where we stand. The Lords' amendments will be overturned when the Bill comes back to the Commons."

Once MPs have finished considering the amendments the Bill will be returned to the Lords in a bid to agree a final text. The Bill could pass between each House several times in a process known as parliamentary 'ping-pong' as MPs and peers fight over the correct wording of the new law.

The Government's welfare reforms have
suffered a seventh defeat in the House of Lords

Speaking after the Welfare Bill cleared the Lords, welfare reform minister Lord Freud said: "I don't think we have seen the last of this Bill."

The Government suffered its seventh reverse in the Lords on Tuesday night over plans from crossbench peer Baroness Meacher to limit cuts to top-up payments made to the parents of disabled children.

The Government wants to introduce a slight increase to the weekly rate for the most disabled children, taking it to £77, while halving the lower rate to £27. Ministers argue the money saved will be spent on providing additional support to the most disabled adults.

Lady Meacher said the Government's plans would mean families with a child on the lower rate losing £1,400 a year.

Liam Byrne, Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary, responding to the latest Government defeat, said: "Once again the Government tried to cross the line of decency, kicking away help from children with disabilities, and once again the Lords have stopped them."

©Press Association

Water bills to rise to average £376

Water bills to rise to average £376

Water and sewerage bills are to rise by around £20 from April, regulator Ofwat has said.

The average bill will increase by 0.5% above inflation to £376, taking into account a rate of inflation of 5.2%, the water companies' watchdog said.

The announcement comes after Ofwat pulled back from deep cuts in household bills in 2009 in its final decision on prices for the next five years.

The average water bill will increase
to 376 pounds from April

But the regulator has insisted that its challenge of companies' proposed bill rises means that across England and Wales average bills are set to remain broadly in line with inflation by 2015 - around 10% below what companies had asked for before inflation has been factored in.

Ofwat chief executive officer Regina Finn said: "When we set limits on prices, we listened to customers. They told us they wanted bills kept down while maintaining safe, reliable water supplies.

"We challenged companies hard to deliver this. Our decision meant that, before inflation, average bills would remain broadly stable between 2010-15.

"We understand that any bill rise is unwelcome, particularly in tough economic times. Inflation feeds through into water bills, and this is driving these rises. We will make sure customers get value for money."

She added: "Companies are investing £22 billion by 2015 - more than £935 for every property in England and Wales.

"This will deliver benefits to us all - from continuing to improve reliability of supplies to cleaner rivers and beaches.

"If companies don't deliver on their investment promises, we will take action."

£2.4m police bill for site eviction

The police operation to clear the UK's largest illegal travellers' site cost almost £2.4 million.

Essex Police confirmed the figure for the policing side of the clearance of Dale Farm, near Basildon, in October.

It had originally been estimated that policing could cost up to £10 million but the final bill is less than a quarter of that.

The clearance operation at
Dale Farm cost Essex Police
more than two million pounds

A report will be presented to Essex Police Authority's finance committee next week and a full breakdown of costs is expected later this month.

Basildon Council has not yet confirmed its costs for the operation, which includes paying a team of bailiffs.

It had set aside £8 million for the eviction - bringing the total forecast cost to £18 million.

Reports locally last week suggested the final cost would be £4.2 million. The council refused to confirm this but said it expected to be "under budget".

There were violent clashes as Essex Police led the operation to clear protesters from the six-acre site before council-employed bailiffs completed the clearance. The operation followed a decade-long row over unauthorised plots.

The Home Office had pledged to pay up to £4.65 million, or half of the policing cost. The Department for Communities and Local Government also contributed £1.2 million towards the eviction.

The remainder will come from policing and council budgets

Government rejects metals theft bill

The government rejected proposed legislation on Friday aimed at combating metal theft, which costs the UK economy upwards of 770 million pounds a year, but said it still saw the need for legal changes to combat the crime.

Metals theft in the UK doubled last year 

Graham Jones, an opposition Labour member of parliament, had drafted legislation banning scrap yards from making cash payments for metal and requiring them to take proof of identification and an address from any potential seller.

It passed through the House of Commons in November, receiving parliamentary support at the time.

Without government support, however, Jones's proposals stood little chance of becoming law and on Friday were rejected in parliament after ministers declared their objection at a second reading.

"We have a split in the government between Home Office ministers who want action and ideologues in BIS (the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) who think that stopping the theft of war memorials is somehow 'damaging red tape'," said Jones.

"We will now not likely see legislation before the Olympics, possibly not until 2013."

Metals theft in the UK doubled last year as thieves took advantage of high metals prices, according to the Energy Networks Association (ENA), which represents telecoms provider BT and Network Rail and was in support of the bill.

A government spokesman said it supports the aims of the bill, believing legislation is needed for a sustainable, long-term solution to "the growing menace of metal theft," adding it had stepped up law enforcement.

"We are currently looking at a range of options including what would be the quickest and most effective legislative vehicle for the changes that are needed," the spokesman added.

The move to reject the bill was welcomed by the British Metal Recycling Association, an industry body that process over 95 percent of Britain's scrap and opposed the bill's proposed cash-less system.

"If you banned cash today, all the regulated business would obviously obey the law, but people who are selling scrap, they'd sell it to illegal yards," said Ian Hetherington, director general of the BMRA.

"We'd rather see a good law even if takes a little more time."

Around 13 million tonnes of metal are recycled in the UK every year, while around 15,000 tonnes of metal are stolen annually, according to the BMRA.

Prices of metals such as copper shed 21 percent of their value last year, but their resale value remained lofty enough to lead to about 700 incidents of metal theft per month against energy networks, according to ENA.

Scrap yards contacted by Reuters in December said they pay about 3.50 pounds ($5.50) for a kilo of copper, depending on quality and the market price on the day.

"We're operating with 1964 legislation here, which allows a whole range of illegal activity. One scrap yard settled an account of a quarter of a million pounds in cash, in (supermarket plastic) bags," said Tony Glover, ENA head of press and public affairs.

"Police do not have enough power to close (scrap yards) down. At the moment if you don't comply with the scrap metals dealers act, you are subject to an average fine of about 350 pounds."

About 1.5 billion pounds of Britain's 5 billion pound-a-year scrap metal industry is cash-based, making it ideal for making money quickly without leaving a paper trail.

Police are ramping up efforts to tackle metal theft. The Metropolitan Police has launched a Waste and Metal Theft Taskforce, and police across England and Wales took part in a national "day of action" in December.

In England's North East, which police say is the epicentre of railway metal theft, police started trials of a system this year in which scrap sellers must prove their identity so that stolen metal can be traced.

© Reuters 2012